Firstly, can I just make the point that rising food prices was already an issue prior to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and was, in part, due to the pandemic and also because of Brexit? It concerns me that, in recent debates, the Conservatives have tried to ignore the facts about the cost-of-living crisis we now face, and decisions made by the Tory UK Government have caused this crisis and the food insecurity that comes with it, not just the war and the pandemic, which is the latest rhetoric I am hearing.

Years of austerity have caused job insecurity for the 22 per cent of people in Wales who are employed in public services. Cuts to the £20 universal credit uplift, increasing national insurance by 1.25 per cent in April and lifting the energy cap by 54 per cent are just some of the huge barriers that have been put on families—[Interruption.]—in Wales who will struggle to afford to eat or heat their homes as a direct result of these policies.

On top of this, the Farmers Union of Wales has repeated its concerns about the current Australia trade deal. The full liberalisation of the trading of agricultural goods does risk the displacement of Welsh and UK food production, and could impose further barriers on UK exports to the EU. But aside from this point, I do welcome Lesley Griffiths's amendment on developing a Welsh community food strategy to encourage the production and supply of locally sourced food in Wales. I also agree that food should be a public good, as was mentioned earlier, and seek better labelling of the product. 

I recently inquired about schools and public services in north Wales, but was told that, in north Wales, much of the land is used for meat and dairy production, following the global average of 77 per cent of land being used for it, and there is only, really, Sealand in north Wales that is used for crops on a large scale, so we'd really have to look at that. But possibly the biggest long-term threat to our food security is the effects of climate change, which have already had huge impacts on crop yields in recent years, with unseasonably dry spells and also terrible flooding. So, we have to also take that into consideration.

Urgent action is required to protect our biodiversity and restore our natural resources. Over the years, in some areas, to increase productivity, ponds and ditches have been drained and hedgerows ripped up, and we have lost 97 per cent of our hay meadows across the UK. To combat this, we need to shift agricultural subsidies towards rewarding farmers appropriately for producing environmental and social outcomes, including improved soil health, clean air and water, and protecting biodiversity. But we also need to encourage more localised food production.

After the war, council houses were built with large gardens so that people could grow vegetables in them. There were community allotments and farms grew a variety of rotating crops, creating ecosystems and areas of biodiversity. I met with a group in Flintshire called FlintShare, where they do community farming at three locations and produce seasonal vegetables and fruit. Going forward, I'd like to see more of the projects rooted in the community supported in counties across Wales. Diolch.